perfidy

But it doesn't even sound good on paper. Dictatorship of the proletariat? It seems to be all about resentment; resentment of those who have stuff, resentment of those who have better fashion sense, whatever. And while religious religions like Christianity and Islam and Buddhism keep the promised land safely in the afterlife, Marxism and its heretical splinters make promises here on Earth, promises that have been proven false over and over again. If you're going to have a secular religion, I might humbly offer the American dream, and the adoration of the republic that used to be common hereabouts. 

While the American Dream(tm) is not always, everywhere perfectly realized, the reality of American life gets closer to the dream as time goes by, rather than further away. The idea that anyone, red, brown, black, white yellow, plaid or purple-polka-dotted can come here, accept a few basic concepts, and make good is basically a real offer. All you have to do is not try to kill your neighbors because they don't talk like you, work hard, apply some initative and *poof* you've got the American dream - however you define it. If that is a house in the suburbs, 2.4 kids, a dog, a cat and a convertible; great. If it's a compound in the Idaho mountains, just apply concept #1, above, and you're still fine. If the American dream is living a bohemian lifestyle in a city condemning the soceity that makes it possible for you to be a bohemian in the city condemning it, that's fine too. This secular religion gives you the liberty to do that, and the liberty to screw up, but it doesn't kill you, throw your family in a gulag, force your grandma to work on a collectivized farm, and in general erase history, lie, terrorize and poster the entire nation with poorly drawn portraits of the great leader.